Filipino-laden Team SMG ready for Valorant Game Changers world tiff

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino Valorant Players Kelly "shirazi" Jaudian, Alexandria "Alexy" Francisco and Camille "Kamiyu" Enriquez are ready to conquer the world stage in the upcoming Valorant Game Changers Championship in Sao Paolo, Brazil from November 28 to December 3.

Team SMG had a dominant run in the Asia-Pacific Elite qualifiers, not conceding a single map throughout their run and winning their ticket to championships after sweeping the tournament, 9-0.

But even with their flawless run, the team knows they still need to improve.

"We always learn from our mistakes and what we could have done better. In the Championship, our focus is to prepare ourselves in playing on LAN, mentality and environment wise," said Francisco.

"For me, every game is losable so wag po tayo magpakampante, because kapag naging kampante ka mas magiging prone to making mistakes," Enriquez chimed in.

Valorant Game Changers is the tournament circuit of the esports title, training the spotlight on women and other marginalized genders to compete. The S-tier tournament is one of Riot Games' commitment to ensuring their games are accessible to all players, regardless of gender.

For the three Filipinos in Team SMG, Game Changers gives women and other marginalized genders an opportunity to showcase their skills in the game and creates a safe community to pursue esports without prejudice.

"It opens a lot of opportunities and chances for women and other genders to showcase our talents and to prove to anyone that even [we] can compete in esports," added Jaudian.

With their upcoming appearance on the world stage, Team SMG will face North America champions Evil Geniuses GC, who also have a Filipino player on their roster, Lorrian "Lorri" Elad.

"We kinda expected we will be matched with NA or EMEA teams kasi they have two teams per region. We want to go up against Shopify Rebellion but going up against Evil Geniuses will be a new experience for us," said Francisco.

Team SMG will open their campaign against Evil Geniuses GC at 4 a.m. on November 29 (Manila time).